


The Devil's Backbone

by ForgottenAngerCourter



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), One Piece
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Credence Barebone Deserves Better, Credence Barebone Finally has a Role Model, Credence Barebone Lives, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Post-Canon Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 03:43:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11546778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForgottenAngerCourter/pseuds/ForgottenAngerCourter
Summary: I wanted to be someone else. Someone more.Someone who stood tall and proud, and who could help those who didn't want the help but who truly needed it. A man who asked for nothing in return- a truly Righteous Man.My name was once Credence Barebone, and I was saved by a doctor with Death written across his fingers.





	The Devil's Backbone

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! This is a strange little one-shot that was the result of reading way too many Fantastical Beasts fanfics while writing the new Part of my LawLu series. I just got this beautiful one-liner stuck in my head, "I was saved by a doctor with Death written across his fingers."  
> How beautiful an opening is that?! 
> 
> So I kind of ran with it, and this is the result. 
> 
> If you want the explanation for how Law ended up being there to save Credence, please read the end notes. This fanfic is very vague on the details, mainly because it is told in Credence's POV, and he does not know the answers to a lot of the questions I am answering down below.

At first I thought he was Death itself.

I was dying- I knew it with every fiber of my being as I laid on a destroyed pew in an abandoned church, just a few blocks away from the one that I had grown up in. Maybe the thing inside of me took me there because I wanted to make peace with God, or maybe it was because I had no one else to turn to, no one else to believe in. Or maybe I just wanted to have a moment of peace before I died.

No matter the reason, that was where I was when I met the man who would save my life.

The first thing I saw was his hands. My eyesight was blurry from the blood loss when I first noticed that I was not alone, and if it had not been for those hands, I probably would have used the last of my strength to defend myself- I would have tried my hardest to drag him down into Hell with me.

But just as I began to tense, I read the words on his knuckles and saw the strange crosses on the backs of his hands, and then all I could feel was _relief_. I relaxed back into the crushed wood underneath me, uncaring to the splinters I was no doubt pushing into my wounds because I could no longer feel the pain.

Death had come for me, and now the pain would finally end. The crushed hopes, the screams that said I would never be good enough- they would finally stop. If I was destined for Hell, then so be it. I was ready. I was going where I belonged, and God would finally be the one to judge me- not the humans.

Humans were so sinful- greedy, selfish, and they would do everything in their power to use and abuse others until their worth ran out. It didn't matter if they had magic or not, they were all the same.

Even Tina- even beautiful, sweet Tina who had defended me against my Ma, she lied to me. She promised to protect me, and seconds later a dozen people behind her shot liquid fire into my body with the intent to kill me.

Well. It looks like they succeeded.

The next thing I registered in my lightheaded state, was the fact that Death was a man. His hair was black and his eyes were catlike, they shined gold.

He looked young, only a few years older than me, and his face was grim and serious. I smiled at him, for even if he was not what I had expected, I could not have imagined a more perfect Being to escort me into the afterlife.

“Are you here to take me to Hell?” I coughed harshly on a mouthful of blood and a finger came up to shush me before those hands reached for my chest.

“Not today.”

His voice was deep, and it had the traces of an accent that I could not identify. It took me a few seconds to actually process what Death was saying, and after I did, I felt a fragile hope bloom in my chest. It was the same hope that was always smashed to pieces, just when I thought that something good might happen to me.

I thought to myself that if he was not taking me to Hell, then that must mean that he was taking me to-

Death began muttering words in a language that I did not know, though it sounded somewhat familiar. Almost like Chinese, but the words flowed better, more smooth and less choppy.

Suddenly it was easier for me to breath, and I couldn't help but gasp happily for air because this was it, this was-

I finally looked down at his hands, and my eyes went wider than saucers at what I saw.

A blue bubble surrounded my upper body, and in his hands was a needle and thread. He was sewing my wounds closed even as the blood underneath me flowed back into my body, and I was screaming hysterically before I could register anything else.

“NononoNoNO! Death! Don't leave me here, don't leave me here I can't- _I can’t do this anymore_ **_please_ ** -”

Death glared down at me, and hissed for me to stop moving when I caused the stitch he was sewing to come out uneven. I stared up at him with tears in my eyes and begged for mercy even as he healed me, and I continued to sob when I found that I could do nothing to stop him.

The church was quiet except for the words that Death continued to whisper over my wounds, and after what seemed to be an eternity, Death moved back and stretched out his arms and neck. When I gloomily looked down at my chest, I could only stare at the precise stitches that littered my skin. I could barely tell that there had been wounds in the first place, and if it weren't for the older scars that covered my body, I would have looked like a human teddy bear that was fresh out of the factory- sewed up and ready to be mangled by human hands.

When I looked up at Death with betrayal in my eyes, the Being sighed, and looked slightly uncomfortable as he searched for the right words to say to me.

“It's not your time.”

More tears squeezed out of my eyes, and Death grimaced before looking down at his hands, “Why did you think I would take you to Hell?”

I couldn’t look at him. I could only stare up at the destroyed ceiling above my head, and silently cry as the clouds above me puffed up as if in sympathy.

“Because I want this world to burn.”

I couldn't see it, but a strange expression crossed Death’s face before he rubbed a hand over his eyes and smiled a bitter smile, “You remind me too much of myself.” Death shifted, and I tilted my head to look at him with tired surprise when he picked me up and settled me over his shoulders.

“What-”

“I wanted to destroy as much of the world as I could before I died. I was a child with an incurable illness, who had suffered more than any child should suffer.”

I watched with wide eyes as the church that we were standing in disappeared, and suddenly we were standing in an alleyway. And then we were standing in a different alleyway, and Mr. Graves could teleport like this but-

But this was different. I didn't feel like my insides were being squeezed, in fact, I couldn't feel anything. It was almost as if Death wasn’t moving at all.

But…

 _“Are_ you Death?”

The man chuckled darkly, and the hand around my leg tightened before he suddenly walked out of the newest alley and out into the open.

I tensed at the sight of people, but they were all running towards something, and very few of them spared us a glance. I smelled salt in the air, and when I glanced around, I saw a boat bigger than a building that seemed to block out half the sky.

The man’s hand moved, and then he glanced down at something that I could not see, before walking with purpose toward the puffing ship.

“No. I am not Death.”

“... Then who are you?”

The man who had saved my life glanced at me with those shifting yellow eyes, and the smile he gave me was sharp with teeth.

“My name is Trafalgar Law, and I am a Doctor.”

I stared at him dumbly, “A doctor with ‘Death’ written across his fingers?”

The man burst out laughing at my comment, and then the world shifted again and we were on the ship. He gently lifted me off of his shoulders, and settled me against the wall next to the doors that led into the ship. It was a place that would be protected from the rain that looked like it would start falling at any moment. The ship's engines whirred in the background, and the people were just beginning to board so the deck was currently empty.

The man named Trafalgar Law handed me a packet of papers.

“What-”

“This is a ticket that has the name of this ship’s destination on it- some place called ‘England’.”

I blinked up at him like a fool, and then the man was unzipping his coat and digging into his pant’s pocket. He handed me a bundle of bills that had me gasping, and then he brought out a handful of gold coins that had me choking on air.

_“What-”_

“I won't be needing this, and I can spare a few gold coins.” The doctor grinned down at me, and it was only then that I noticed the sword he was carrying. It was a long sword with a dozen crosses across its sheath, and I stared up at this strange man who had crosses on his hands and on his sword.

“Who are you? Really?”

His body began to blur around the edges, and the man grinned down at me and ignored my question, “You know, you even _look_ a lot like me. You have the same eyes.” The man laughed, but it sounded faint, as if he were far away, “Though I’ve never had such an awful haircut in my life.”

He shrugged off his coat and tossed it into my lap, and I could just make out the faint swirls of black marks on his forearms before the man began to fade, “Seems like my time is up.”

My whole body jolted at these words, and I was struggling to stand up when the man simply shook his head and grinned down at me, “Wait! Why… Why did you bring me to this boat? Why did you give me this?”

_Why did you help me?_

By this point the man was little more than a shadow, but I could just make out his shoulders shrugging even as his last words were whispered into the wind. He disappeared, and I was left alone on the deck of an ocean liner with a prepaid ticket in my hand, six gold coins, and 230 dollars in small bills.

_“I guess it was instinct, because for me, the ocean leads to freedom.”_

Slowly, reverently, I touched the long black coat that I had thought belonged to Death, and I did not even try to guess how expensive it must have been. I shrugged it on and it was still warm, and I felt like it was warming me down to my very bones. I zipped up the long coat that began at my neck and ended at my calves, effectively covering my tattered cloths from any curious eyes that were soon gathered on the deck. The bills and coins were safely tucked away in a hidden pocket I had discovered in the coat, and now I was staring down at the yellow pattern sewn on its hem. An image of a yellow smiley face was sewn into the fabric, and I couldn't help but smile back at it as I listened to the people around me swarm as they tried to get inside of the ship before the rain began to fall.

 

 

**D E A T H**

 

My name was Credence Barebone.

I was raised by a woman who was not my real mother, and she beat me every day of my life for having the ‘devil’ in me. I once heard her say that my mother was a witch, and after that, I _knew_ why she beat me so harshly. I took a strange comfort in the knowledge that I was born different, that she beat me for a _reason_. I took comfort in the knowledge that there were people out there just like me. People who could save me, people who wouldn’t care that I had magic.

But my magic scared even the people who were supposed to accept me. I was betrayed by the people who I thought would help me, by the magic users. People who I thought were different from the cruel Non Magicals that I had always known, but who turned out to be just the same.

And then when I was dying, I was saved by a doctor with Death written across his fingers.

He used his magic to heal my wounds and then left me on a boat with money, a warm coat, and a way _out_. I left America behind me and I traveled to England. I slept in the room of the man whose ticket had been given to me, and I used my magic to sneak off of the boat when we arrived at the port in Plymouth, England.

It was freeing, being on my own. I did not have to look over my shoulder, because I was just another face in the crowd here. No one knew my face, knew my past.

It was liberating.

At first I walked across the streets of Plymouth with no particular destination in mind, but then I passed by a woman who spoke in a language that I did not understand, but I did recognize. She was what my Ma called a whore, and she was a pretty Asian lady who spoke decent English. A quick conversation later, and I knew that the language the doctor had spoken over me was Japanese.

“You know, your eyes look very different from the usual Americans who come here.” She gave me a cheeky grin and then tapped my temples with her fingers, “Maybe you have a little Japanese in you, yes? Maybe you born half and half.”

She almost left me standing on the street with my mouth hanging open like a fool, but I grabbed her hand and offered to buy her dinner before she could disappear down an alleyway.

She was eyeing me suspiciously at that point, but she must have seen no threat on my face because she reluctantly agreed. Her eyes were curious, and that more than anything else was what probably made her agree to eat with me, and I can only be grateful for it. I asked her to take me to wherever she usually ate, and after we were settled in the restaurant, she ordered the most expensive thing on the menu and stared at me with those dark eyes of hers. She seemed satisfied when I didn't so much as twitch at the price of her meal.

“You must be very rich man, to not care about what I order.”

I gave her a smile, and told her that it would be worth it because I needed help.

That was the beginning of a long and confusing conversation for the poor woman, but it ended with me satisfied, and a new destination in mind.

“You- you really plan to go to Japan?”

I nodded and thanked her profusely as I paid the bill while she stood beside me, gaping.

“You insane American.”

I laughed, and bowed down to kiss the stunned woman’s hand like I had seen plenty of men do to beautiful young ladies, “I might be insane, but I think that is where I need to be right now.”

She sniffed haughtily, even as her cheeks pinked from the attention, “You not survive one week, you cannot speak Japanese or even read it.” I shrugged, and then I grinned like a loon at the small woman who had a dragon tattoo on her shoulder. She shifted uneasily, “You never told me your name.”

I opened my mouth to tell her the name that the woman who was not my mother gave me, but before I could, something inside of me made me stop.

I wasn't that boy anymore. I wasn't some unremarkable orphan whose ‘mother’ controlled every moment of his life, and I _refused_ to be the boy who people used and tossed aside when they got what they wanted from me.

I wanted to be someone else. Someone more. Someone who stood tall and proud, and who could help those who didn't want the help but who truly needed it. A man who asked for nothing in return- a truly Righteous Man.

 

 _You know, you even_ ** _look_** _a lot_ _like me. You have the same eyes._

_Maybe you have a little Japanese in you, yes? Maybe you born half and half._

 

Everyone's life is a story, and I only knew the middle of mine. I did not know the name that my birth parents gave me, nor did I know what they were called. I did not know what led them to New York, nor what caused my mother to be left without my father to take care of her.

 

_You remind me too much of myself._

_I wanted to destroy as much of the world as I could before I died. I was a child with an incurable illness, who had suffered more than any child should suffer._

 

That man really did look like me.

 

_My name is Trafalgar Law, and I am a Doctor._

 

And maybe, just maybe…

I smiled at her, “You said that last names go first in Japan right? Then my family name is Trafalgar... does that sound like a Japanese name to you?”

 

 

**D E A T H**

 

 

And so, whether it was the truth or not, from that day forward I declared that I was the son of a Japanese wizard named Trafalgar Law. He was a man who had traveled the world in search for a cure for his incurable illness, and he became a doctor who had Death tattooed across his fingers.

I followed in his footsteps and studied medicine, both magical and non-magical, and I treated everyone who I saw that needed my help- no matter their backgrounds.

I was there, treating the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and they cursed me, spat at me, and called me American scum. I saved everyone that I could, and I was proud to find that I could help so many hurt people who were dealing with radiation poisoning.

I left Japan after the war because I knew that I was no longer welcome there because of half my heritage, and so I traveled. I saw wonders that no other man had ever seen before- I saw entire cities that laid underwater, people who walked as both an animal and a man, and I even gained a brief apprentice in Russia once. 

But there was one thing that was always consistent, no matter where I traveled. Inevitably, I would be asked this question, and it would never cease to make me smile. 

 

“Why would a doctor have Death written aross their fingers?"

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Law was never meant to be in the Harry Potter Universe, and I came up with a lot of different reasons for how it could happen and still be temporary- but in the end the details don't really matter because this story isn't really about him or the One Piece world.  
> My explanation is that it was a mixture of an unknown Devil Fruit ability (I was thinking something like CP-0 and the Door-Door fruit which I think might have similar powers to the Mirror-Mirror fruit and therefore might have the ability to open doors to other dimensions), and Credence's dying Obscural that was desperate for survival.  
> Law was popped out of the One Piece world during a fight, and was meant to be tossed into a war-torn world in hopes that he would die before the timer ran out (the devil-fruit user in question can only pop someone into another dimension for a certain number of hours, because everyone's soul belongs in the dimension it was born in), but Credence's dying magic was able to latch onto Law in that in-between moment, and it dragged him into the Harry Potter world because it sensed that he could save it. 
> 
> *Side-Note: Law has english words tattooed across his knuckles (his most notorious tattoos!), and so because of that I wrote this fanfic sort've assuming that he could speak a decent amount of english as a result. Hope everyone is okay with that! I needed to assume this for plot basically...
> 
> Anyways, I think that this story was a worthwhile experiment, and now I remember why I hate doing first person so much XD  
> I will admit that I had a good time writing this though, and I hope you all have fun reading it as well! I love you guys, and I'm looking foreword to hearing what people think of my newest fanfic- I even drew some fanart, even if I'm more of a writer then an artist XD


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